At a time when the cost of living is skyrocketing and wallets are tightening all around the world, luxury items are usually the first to drop off the grocery list. But overseas one New Zealand luxury good is seeing a sweet boom.
Kiwi mānuka honey exporters have recorded a surge in European demand, with one producer seeing a 15 percent increase in sale volumes for its honey, which retails at $800 per kg.
Industry experts said the honey rush is largely down to the effects of a recent tariff removal, a weaker Kiwi dollar and strong harvest volumes.
Under the new European Union-New Zealand free trade agreement, a 17.3 percent tariff on Kiwi-sourced honey was removed in July.
Naki NZ global market manager Derek Burchell-Burger said while consumer confidence has been heavily impacted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a kilo of manuka honey can be landed in Europe for 27 percent less than a year ago.
He said the falling New Zealand dollar is helping them secure new wholesale accounts throughout the EU and offset the impact of war and inflation on spending in that market.
"As a result, our exports are growing at a time when luxury goods are heavily exposed to falling levels of disposable income," he said.
Burchell-Burger said they have recently been able to increase sales to a number of European countries including Germany, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands, and are looking to France as the next untapped market for mānuka honey.
"While Germany is the largest EU importer of honey from non-EU countries, France is a close second with almost $1b of the product consumed annually," Burchell-Burger said.
Burchell-Burger said the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted consumer interest in the wellness features of the honey. In countries like Germany, France, Austria, Netherlands and Sweden the product is likely to be sold through pharmacies, supermarkets and naturopathic practitioner channels, showing consumers have a high awareness of the medicinal aspects of the honey, he said.
"Even prior to the pandemic we saw that European consumers had a high awareness of the medicinal aspects of manuka honey," Burchell-Burger said.
"This understanding of the product has grown noticeably over the past couple of years and consumers will ask detailed questions about the anti-viral and antibacterial methylglyoxal levels and its ability to trigger an immune response.
"As a result, Europeans are looking for the more efficacious, higher grade of honey than we would see with Chinese consumers."
Burchell-Burger says over 99 percent of their honey production is exported with a small number of retailers in Queenstown providing access to the product for international visitors.
